98 ballots end up where?

Alaska's elections director said yesterday she has 98 uncounted ballots from Washington's Nov. 2 election and would like to send them back here.

Dino Rossi's campaign wants to see them.

Washington officials say the ballots were cast as provisional ballots by people who said they were Alaska residents, and then the votes were sent north. Provisional ballots are given to voters on Election Day when they go to polling places other than their own, or their names don't appear in lists of registered voters.

Washington, with one of the country's most liberal provisional-ballot laws, sends ballots to the voter's home state in hopes they can be counted in the presidential election, said Washington's director of elections, Nick Handy.

"I actually had a number of calls from election directors from around the country that said, 'Why am I getting provisional ballots from Washington?' " Handy said.

In Juneau, Alaska Director of Elections Laura Glaiser said a quick look at the 98 ballots found one showing an Alaska mailing address but a place of residence in Tacoma.

Handy and Glaiser said that could qualify as a Washington vote if the voter were properly registered here.

Glaiser tried to give the ballots back so officials here could review them to make sure none were cast by valid Washington voters. But her attorneys were told by a state attorney here that Washington law called for the ballots to be sent out of state.

After hearing of the Alaska ballots yesterday, the Rossi campaign began a nationwide search for ballots held by other states, and believes there are Washington ballots in Idaho as well.

Handy said it's too late for the ballots to be counted.